7 new, exciting and healthy food products to add to your grocery list — stat!
The supermarket is a magical place. Pushing your cart down the aisles filled with fresh, wrapped and alluring food — all of which you can buy, take home and taste — is somewhat of a rush.
Just like menus at restaurants change, so should your at-home cooking game. Embrace the latest food trends (or just 2017-ify a favorite family recipe) with these new food products that belong on your grocery list.
Blue Evolution superfood seaweed pasta
With seaweed, kelp and all sorts of algae becoming a prominent part of the 21st century diet, you're going to want to hop aboard the sea-vegetable boat.
Though seaweed crisps and kelp salads may sound intimidating to algae newbies, Blue Evolution has turned seaweed into kids' food that adults can enjoy. The brand's seaweed mac-and-cheese shells comes with a white cheddar dried-cheese packet — and there's a gluten-free version. Plain seaweed-infused penne and rotini are available, too, for those who prefer to dress their noodles independently.
Hilary's veggie sausage
With the advent of meat-free burgers that bleed, the race to create meat-like products is on. And while vegetarians may already be familiar with a slew of imitation meats, a new, healthier, additive-free round is hitting grocery shelves. Some may know Hilary's for its veggie burgers and salad dressings, but the allergen-free food company is upping its breakfast game with new veggie sausage patties, available in spicy and apple-maple. The corn-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, egg-free, nut-free and soy-free patties are, surprisingly, not free of flavor and packed with healthy ingredients like millet, lentils, dates, coconut oil, hemp seed and more.
Green Giant veggie tots
Remember when we told you veggies are the new everything? Though parents have long been been sneaking vegetables into kids' food, major corporations have latched on to the trend of supplementing, or substituting, traditional starches with veggies (we see you zoodles). Case in point: the new line of Green Giant products, which includes tater tots made with broccoli and cauliflower. At 110 calories per six-piece serving, these crispy treats make a solid snack, also providing 6 grams of fiber and 30% of daily recommended vitamin C. Low in sugar but notably high in sodium, the tots may not quite fit into health-food category (that's actual broccoli), but they're getting close.
Cold-brew coffee pops
Cold brew on a stick? We'll take it. For a sweet boost of caffeine that you can lick on the go, look no further than GoodPop's all-natural cold-brew coffee pops made with fair-trade certified organic Arabica coffee and rBST-free milk and cream from Texas, which is local for the Austin-based company. Think fudgsicles but grown up. And yes, GoodPops are also available in a chocolate-milk flavor.
Grab, blend and go smoothies
As packaged meals become more alluring and even more tempting to replace your meal-prep routine, Daily Harvest has found a way to capitalize on millennial laziness: premade smoothie cups that you blend just before you sip. Daily Harvest's smoothies come in amenable flavors like strawberry and peach and banana and greens in cups that are half-full with frozen ingredients, to be topped with a liquid (try dairy milk or almond milk) and blended before being poured back into the cup and enjoyed. Sure, you could make Pinterest-inspired frozen smoothie bags and DIY this, but who has time for that?
Flavorful farro risotto
Alessi's farro risotto line debuted in summer 2016, but if you haven't tried it yet, get ready for a potentially life-changing food product. Available in porcini mushroom, beet-spinach and butternut-squash-kale flavors, this farro cooks in 20 minutes and is full of fiber and protein. Unlike white rice, farro is a whole grain you can feel good about eating. Peace out, Rice-A-Roni.
Legitimately good canned soup
New food companies are popping up all over the place, and while you may still have a soft spot in your heart (and mouth) for Campbell's chicken soup with stars, the iconic soup company's new line of Well Yes! offers a rainbow of artificial-ingredient-free, café-style soups that are ready to heat and eat. Nine new varieties include minestrone with kale, tomato-carrot bisque, black bean with red quinoa and a new, updated chicken noodle soup with quinoa-flour egg noodles and antibiotic-free chicken.
